Life and death at Spring Time

Fresh green leaves unfurling and the arrival of migrant birds reminds us that this is the season of growth and renewal.The little lane near where I live is typical of this area; twisting this way and that,uphill and down following the lay of the land and bounded by a hotchpotch of hedge, moss covered stone wall and gnarled trees.It is a wonderful wildflower habitat, providing the sheep can't get at it.

         Dog Violets (blue) and Greater Stitchwort (white) growing beside a lane near Dol y Moch    
          


This morning (24th April), I treated myself to a short walk along the lane in question where I took the above photo and saw the following wildflowers..........Lesser Celandine, Herb Robert, Bluebells, Dog Violet, Red Campion, Wood Anemones, Wood Sorrel, Wood Sage, Foxglove, Dog Rose,Wall Pennywort, Forget-me-not, Germander Speedwell..............and there will be many others that make their appearance later in the year.In addition there are countless species of  non-flowering plants; mosses, liverworts, ferns and lichens.Our country lanes are indeed a work of art, hundreds of years in the making, a unique heritage.Go and enjoy them but remember they need protection; road widening or straightening or mowing verges at the wrong time of year can all damage or destroy this unique habitat.              

Migrant bird species have been arriving in an orderly sequence beginning with the Chiff Chaff on the 20th March and then in April, Blackcaps (2nd), Willow Warblers (13th),  Pied Flycatchers(15th), Swallows (24th) and Wood Warblers on the 1st May.                                                    
When the Pied Flycatchers (PFC) arrived the bird box they normally use was still plugged to prevent early use by BlueTits.We immediately unplugged the box and the next day (16th) the pair were staking their claim. On the 17th they were seen mating and two days later the female was carrying nest material into the box.A few days later they both disappeared leaving behind a well formed nest and that is the situation as I write (6th May).                                                        
Not too far from the PFC nest box I came across the remains of a racing pigeon, mostly feathers strewn about a grassy bank, obviously used as a plucking ground. I suspect the culprit was a Peregrine Falcon that occasionally hunts above this spot.The photo below shows two of the feathers on which are stamped the bird's number (56), and the name and phone numbers of the bird's owner.                    

There is a web site where reports of found living and dead racing pigeons can be posted,but unfortunately in this case part of the  information was missing so I was unable to report the incident.                    
Still on the topic of birds,our resident Nuthatches have been using the same nest box shown below for the last three years.

Every year as part of their breeding behaviour they daub the box with mud as you can see in this photo.This behaviour of sealing up cracks, holes and crevices would be advantageous when using natural nest sites such as holes in decaying tree trunks making them more predator and weather proof.

Below is a photo of Olwen, my farmer-neighbour, with one of her young lambs wearing a woolly black jumper. The jumper is not a fashion statement or a means to keep the lamb warm.It is the coat of a black lamb that was born dead.The white lamb is one of twins born to a ewe that was finding it difficult to feed both lambs.The obvious solution you may think, is to give one of the twins to the black ewe whose own lamb was born dead.

  Not so easy..........because a ewe will recognise her lambs by their smell, rejecting those smelling of other ewes. So the farmer removes the skin and coat of the dead lamb and places it on the lamb to be fostered.The fostering ewe is tricked into thinking that the lamb belongs to her because it smells like her lamb. I'm happy to report that mum and baby are doing fine (see below)

Don't forget to check out my next blog as I have something horrendously smelly to tell you about!




                                   

Frogs and trees cross roads

The severe storms of mid February wrought havoc and mayhem in North Wales.Thousands of trees were blown down blocking railway lines,roads and severing  electricity power lines. Dol y moch was without power for almost two day resulting in Frederick Bird and Spongate Primary school groups having to return to Coventry. However the good news is that both schools have had their courses re-scheduled for the summer.
At one stage road access to Dol y Moch was completely blocked by several fallen trees. (See below)

This is where the coach stops when dropping off or picking up school groups

Sadly the lovely old cherry tree that once stood in front of the house and which produced spectacular displays of pink blossom each spring, is now no more, along with many oak trees in the Dol y Moch woodland.

The end of the Cherry Tree

But even in stormy February a few spring flowers were braving the weather, Lesser Celandine making an appearance on the 16th and Daffodils on the 20th.

In March the Jet Stream slipped northwards heralding a change to calmer conditions and a feeling that spring had finally arrived.(Well almost)

Wood Anemones in bloom were spotted on the 20th March, a single white Bluebell on the 30th, and on the 2nd April,  Bluebells proper were beginning to flower.

A surge of unseasonal warm, dusty air coming up from Africa and the Mediterranean took my shade thermometer to just under 22 C on the 30th March; However, I understand that officially,  Porthmadog was the warmest spot in Britain with 21C recorded!

Heavy rain on the evening of 31st coupled with the warm air brought masses of migrating frogs out onto the steamy roads......quite a wildlife spectacle but hellishly difficult for driving.That night I drove from Caernarfon to Porthmadog and had to dodge hundreds of frogs wandering across the road; fortunately their light coloured skin under their chins stood out in the car headlights so I was able to miss them by driving slowly and safely. However, noting the speed of other cars that evening it would appear that their drivers were either unaware of the frogs or unconcerned.............in both cases that was a pity.

Our migrant bird species began arriving on the 20th March but more about that in my next blog very soon.

Bluebells and Global Warming

This morning there were whining sounds of chainsaws from across the Glaslyn floodplain, the woodmen dealing with the trees that have succumbed to yet more gales.Ironically as I listened to the chainsaws I too was cutting and chopping wood from trees blown down in the storms of 2012!
The west coast of Wales has certainly taken a battering of late.Two days ago (1st Feb ) a Force 9 gale lashed the local coastline but today the wind had dropped to Force 5-6 . With the sun giving a rare appearance, I decided to venture down to the little  seaside town of Criccieth to see how it had fared.
As expected the tide was very high, and huge waves were thumping against the seawall and esplanade,but no obvious damage was visible.However the cliffs on the west side of Criccieth had suffered severe erosion with large sections having collapsed into the sea.
Further along the coast where the land is lower the sea had surged  over the top of the beach, scouring the land and dumping masses of sand, pebbles and sea borne plastic rubbish over a wide area.Most of the damage that I saw was actually caused by the severe storm on Boxing Day.
Although the weather so far this winter has been exceptionally wet and stormy, it has been mild and that has encouraged the spring flowers to start growing earlier. Our Snowdrops have been in flower since Jan 8th and the Daffodils are now 20 cm high.Bluebells have also made an appearance,their bright green shoots pushing up to 5 cm above ground as shown in the photo I took today (4th Feb )

There are also two other spring flowers in this photo; on the left with feathery leaves is Pignut and on the right,the heart shaped leaves of Lesser Celandine.
So the spring flowers are on the way but the Frog spawn is already here.............see below.

This small healthy clump I spotted today but I guess that it has been there for a couple of days..............so deposited probably at the beginning of Feb. Last year I noticed spawn in the same pond on 6th Feb.
It's lovely to hear the birds singing once again especially the Mistle Thrush calling from the tree tops.I even saw a pair of Robins mating which is very early indeed.There are plenty of ducks down on the marshes including Teal,Wigeon and Shovelers. Flocks of Canada Geese,Whooper and Mute Swans are busy grazing the farm fields.
On the 30th Jan I heard a Vixen barking at dusk from the woodland
near my house;checking my notebook I heard a vixen on the 20th January last year from exactly the same place.
If you are a regular follower of the Season Watch blog you will be aware that I record the occurrence of seasonal life cycle events of particular animals and plants  as mentioned above.
Recording events like these and  their relationship to seasonal climate and habitat influences is called Phenology and has proved useful in the study of Climate Change and Global Warming.
Using records compiled over many years has enabled scientists to monitor trends in animal and plant life cycles that can indicate  changes in global temperatures.For example,the early growth of spring plants and arrival of migrating birds species indicate that Spring is beginning earlier as winters become milder.